Or perhaps arachnids in the Y(UK)! Always a creepy spider ep in everything and this was no exception, so after feeling itchy and scratchy, time to review! This was more likely the show's Hallowe'en episode. But the size of those things, they were humongous weren't they! No time for hiding behind sofas this ep, never know what might crawl out from behind there, sorry folks, you need another hidey place!
As they return home, Team TARDIS as they ended up calling themselves at the end, everyone seems out of place and don't really know what to do with themselves. With Yaz (Mandip Gill) inviting everyone for tea at her flat without asking her dad (Ravan J Ganatra). Graham (Bradley Walsh) decided he wanted to go home and be alone to gather his thoughts with Grace (Sharon D Clarke). He pictured her there but the house was deserted and he sat there sniffing her clothes! Well, deserted except for that creepy crawley in the loft. And again YUK! The same with Yaz's neighbour two doors down; as a woman tried to see if she was okay. Yaz's mother, Najia (Shobna Gulati) calls her to pick her up from work as she's just been fired from her job at a fancy hotel. Cue Chris Noth as a fancy pants hotel mogul (ringing bells ha) but this one was a rival to that other Orange thing (Aka No 45) and even he said not to mention that name! Also running for President in 2010. SO he had a lot to lose if anything got out over the real reason he was worried, or rather what was under his chain of hotels. As well as Graham's resounding " God help us" when they find out what he's really like.
As the Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) opens the door for Jade (Tanya Fear) to check on her friend, they're inundated with spider webs, massively thick ones and on top of that they find her in her bed covered with them, like in a cocoon. The Doctor tells them they need to worry more about finding where the spider is and Ryan (Tosin Cole) finds it under the bed. As it crawls out she tells them to put the door between them as she hunts for something to keep it at bay, leaving Ryan to guard the door. She finds vinegar to repel it, but more as a line it doesn't cross. She wants to help it but knows Jade is letting on more than she knows.
Jade takes them back to her lab after Graham comes running back to tell them what he's found. They were working on finding tough webs of spiders and she has a map showing where the outbreaks have occurred. The Doctor strings the map to find a gap, leading to the hotel. Yaz arrives to pick up Najia who is fired yet again and he wants to know who Yaz is cos she looks more like she's fifteen. He shows her the rooms where all the webs are and she says it wasn't like this, as he leaves for his "scheduled bathroom break". And as I said, 'what's in the bath.' Oh you know, spiders and their rep for always lurking there. As he washes his hands, the bath cracks to reveal a gigantic spider and Kevin enters, as he throws him into the bathroom and leaves to be attacked and carried away into the bath. The others show up and the Doctor checks the plughole where she sees the giant spider. She suggests they move to somewhere bright and Najia takes them to the kitchen. Of course whilst all this is going on, Graham and Ryan are impressed with him, that guy. (Yeh the guy who gets around in all those shows! Ha.) He's Jack Robertson, hotel mogul and soon to be running for Pres, as already said.
The Doctor thinks Najia could be the link between them as Najia asks who the Doctor is and whether she's seeing her, then later will ask if she's seeing Ryan. A bit like her sister (Bhavnisha Parmar) did in the beginning. Whereas her dad was left at home with his horrible, by now cold, pakoras!! As well as referring to the rubbish that comes up through the sink into their flat. Calling it a conspiracy. As the Doctor finds the tunnel with the cocoons of Jack's niece's wife, Frankie and Kevin. This leads her to a landfill which Jack's company has been using to fill his land with and to build his hotels over. Thus "re-purposing" land. Only the company's been dumping all sorts of illegal waste there too and Jade says this include waste from their lab so would include spider carcasses, so they may not all be dead. As Graham and Ryan are sent to trap a spider, it's not the biggest one, which they find in the ballroom, as Graham asks if Ryan checked the ceiling. Ryan also telling Graham he read his father's letter saying he was sorry he wasn't there for him and he wants to see him again as they're "proper" family. Whatever that means as Ryan says his father's not "proper family" either.
The Doctor comes up with the notion to trap them all into one place so they can die a humane death. Deciding on Jack's panic room, which in the scheme of things and seeing the re-purpose it was for, took a long time to actually open. He has food and weapons there to last him six months. Ryan tells him the Doctor won't be happy about the guns. But true to form Jack mentions how everyone should have a gun and do as they do and just use them for everything and on everyone. A sarcastic if not poignant line, as that's exactly what is happening in the US right now. The Doctor says the spiders are attracted to vibrations and Ryan gets the idea to play rap on the speaker system which attracts them to the panic room, where I suppose they were left to die, cos they didn't actually show a proper ending to that. Except she finds the mother spider and Jade tells her it's dying since it's increased in size and can't get enough oxygen... But Jack comes in and shoots it with Kevin's gun he retrieved from the tunnel. So I'm echoing Jack's line:
"Why don't you do what normal people do – get a gun, shoot things like a civilized person?"
Graham returns home but finds he doesn't want to stay there it's too lonely for him and filled with Grace's memories and so does Ryan. Yaz leaves to get bread for the family after which her mother says she can tell her about the Doctor, but she's not coming back either. Graham knocks on the TARDIS door and he says there's too many memories there for him to get over and it's better to be away. The Doctor can't promise them they'll be safe but takes them on a trip as they all start the TARDIS together.
A more back to normal ep this one with plenty of running around, some serious soul searching and of course Jack getting away unscathed possibly to fulfill his fate as President. Even though he confesses to being an arachnophobe nothing happens to him and he doesn't get done in for the landfill fiasco either. Even Yaz doesn't mention she's a police officer to him when he made the fifteen remark. Only her dad mentions it early on. But Chris is good in whatever role he plays going back to one of his earliest in Law and Order and he clearly was having fun with this role and appearance. Maybe they should encounter him again in a future ep set in 2010! Don't know about you, think Jade would've made an excellent companion too, very level headed and intelligent too! Makes a change ha! But seriously she was good.
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